· ELECTION COMMISSION BANS RECEP TAYYIP ERDOGAN, NECMETTIN ERBAKAN,
AKIN BIRDAL AND MURAT BOZLAK FROM STANDING AS CANDIDATES
On 20 September, the Turkish electoral commission forbade the former mayor
of Istanbul, Recep Tayyip erdogan, head of the Justice and Development
Party (AKP ­ moderately Islamic), the former Islamist Prime Minister
Necmettin Erbakan, Murat Bozlak, head of the Peoples' Democratic Party
(HADEP ­ pro Kurdish) as well as the most influential Turkish Human Rights
activist, Akin Birdal from standing as candidates in the coming general election.

In a press communiqué, the High Electoral Council, whose decisions are not
subject to appeal, announced that it had "decided by a majority of votes to
reject the candidature of Mr. Erdogan for the elections" and "unanimously"
the candidatures of Messrs. Bozlak and Birdal. Moreover, in respect of the
list presented by the Democratic People's Party (DEHAP ­ pro-Kurdish) the
Council had invalidated over fifteen of the candidates.

"The minarets are our bayonets, the domes are our helmets and the mosques
are our barracks" are verses quoted from the author of the Turkish National
Anthem by Mr. Erdogan at a political meeting used as the basis of his
exclusion. In this, the Council followed the ruling of several courts that
had ruled that Mr. Erdogan, 48 years of age, and sentenced in 1998 for
"incitement to religious hatred" and actually jailed for four months, could
not avail himself of the recent amnesty to stand as candidate. Mr. Erdogan
had defended the legitimacy of his candidature by the recent changes in the
Penal Code. His organisation has appealed to the European Human Rights
Court to demand the suspension application of this ruling, but the Court
has already declared this appeal inadmissible.

According to the latest opinion polls, the AKP could win 25% of the votes
in the coming General Elections while several of the parties at present
holding office risk losing all their seats in Parliament through failing to
reach the threshold of 10% of the national vote needed to win
representation in the Assembly. A victory of the AKP in the elections could
have important repercussions in this country where the army claims the
right to act as indomitable guardian of Atatürk's secular principles and
never hesitates in interfering in its political life.
 

·  PARLIAMENTATY ASSEMBLY OF COUNCIL OF EUROPE CRITICISES TURKEY FOR
FAILING TO APPLY  EUROPEAN  LEGAL  DECISIONS;  DEMANDS  RETRIAL  FOR
 KURDISH FORMER MEMBERS  OF PARIAMENT.  A report drawn up by Erik
Jurgens, member of the Legal and Human Rights Commission of the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe congratulates the "recent
modifications recently made by Turkey to its Constitution and legislation"
but "regrets, however, that a number of important problems have still not
been resolved, in particular the damages ordered by the Court, the retrial or restore

restoration of their civic and political rights to appellants sentenced
after unfair trials, freedom of expression and measures to be taken to
avoid fresh violations by the security forces ­ in particular with respect
to those articles of the Convention on the right to life and the
interdiction of torture".

The Commission also notes, with considerable anxiety, Turkey's persistent
refusal to observe the Court's rulings in the Loizidou case, that is to say
to compensate a Cypriot national for property in the North part of the
island to which he is denied access. It considers that this refusal bears
witness to "Turkey's manifest contempt for its international obligations".
The Ministerial Committee is asked to envisage, among other measures, to
distrain upon Turkey's contributions to the Council of Europe for these sums.

Moreover, following a report entitled "Turkey's application of the
decisions of the European Human Rights Court" a resolution was passed by
the Assembly [see Debates of the Assembly of 23 September 2002  (25th
Session), (Doc. 9537, report of the Legal and Human Rights Commission,
reporter Mr. Jurgens). Motion adopted by the Assembly 23 September 2002
(25th Session)]. The following are extensive extracts of the text, which
may be found in full on the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of
Europe's Web Site :  www.assembly.coe.int/Mainf.asp

" However, despite the progress recently achieved, the Assembly cannot but
regret that a number of important problems remain outstanding. The Assembly
therefore reiterates its calls upon the Turkish authorities to ensure
rapidly that:

-       The modalities of payment of just satisfaction respect the
judgments of the Court (90 cases);
-       Legislation is adopted allowing applicants who have been convicted
in unfair trials receive a new trial or other similar redress without
further delay (Sadak, Zana, Dicle, Dogan);
-       Legislation is adopted allowing the consequences of criminal
convictions violating the Convention to be immediately erased, including by
restoring the applicants' civil and political rights (18 cases of freedom
of expression);
-       Further legislative action is rapidly taken to ensure respect for
freedom of expression, notably in the application of the anti-terror
legislation;
-       Further progress is made in preventing, through development of the
training of the security forces and the development of effective criminal
and civil remedies, new violations notably of Articles 2 and 3 of the
Convention (respect for life and prohibition of torture (38 cases
concerning the actions of the security forces);
-       Concrete measures are adopted in the case of Cyprus v. Turkey,
notably to deal with the problems of missing persons in a manner respecting
the Convention and to stop the ongoing violations of the rights of the
Greek Cypriots in northern Cyprus;
-       The necessary legislative amendments in the Zana case are adopted
without further delay.

The Assembly deeply "regrets that the new legislation on reopening of
proceedings adopted by Turkey in August 2002 expressly excludes any
possibility to comply with the Court's judgment in Sadak, Zana, Dicle and
Dogan case so that the four applicants will continue to serve their 15 year
prison sentences imposed following an unfair trial. It strongly supports
the Committee's demand urgently to remedy the applicants' situation either
by making this new legislation immediately applicable to all pending cases
or by adopting ad hoc measures in the applicants' favour. In case the
applicants' situation is not rectified, the Assembly will consider the
consequences of such a refusal at its session in January 2003."
 

· THREE KURDISH VILLAGERS  KILLED BY STATE  MILITIA. According to the
Turkish authorities, three Kurdish villagers were killed on 26 September in
an armed clash with pro-government militia who wanted to prevent them from
returning to their homes in Turkish Kurdistan. The three victims were
members of a family of about fifteen who wanted to return to their village
of Ugrak, about 25 Kilometres from Bismil, which was abandoned and guarded
by "village guards".

These "village guards", who have been paid by the state for over a decade
to prevent the infiltration by the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) opened
fire with AK47 (Kalashnikov) assault rifles, killing a child of 7, a youth
of 16 and a woman of 45, added the same official sources. Six other people
were wounded and the village guards have deserted the area, according
information given by the regional security forces.

Several thousands of Kurdish villages had been forcibly evacuated in the
first half of the 90s, either to punish villagers who cooperated, willingly
or against their will, with the guerrillas or just to prevent the latter
getting food. After the ending of the armed struggle in 1999, the Turkish
State announced, in 2000, an ambitious project of "return to the villages"
to ease the overcrowding in the cities to which the villagers had been
forced to emigrate and plans, which have never been followed up, to
repopulate the devastated rural areas.
 

· BLOODTHIRSTY PICTURES TO MAKE SCHOOL CHILDREN AWARE OF TERRORISM.
The Turkish daily Radikal of 26 September under the headline "Your lesson
today will be horror" reports that the Police Department of the town of
Bolu, has started a series of lectures on terrorism in the High Schools,
exhibiting such atrocious pictures (such as the shredded corps of a woman
guerrilla fighter) that the pupils "screamed and tried to close their eyes"
to avoid seeing them. "In these lectures, we explain with the help of
booklets, the points to which young people should pay attention" stressed
Ali Osman Akgun, head of the anti-terrorist section, who intends giving a
series of 13 lectures in various High Schools
 

· "URANIUM " SEIZED BY THE TURKISH POLICE  AT URFA.
On 30 September, the Turkish gendarmerie announced that the enriched uranium, seized in the
course of an operation in the Kurdish province of Urfa, weighed 140 grammes
and not the 15.7 Kilogrammes that it had earlier indicated. The uranium
had, at first, been weighed in its lead container, which explains the
confusion over its weight.

The gendarmes had arrested tow people who were preparing to sell their
radioactive parcel on a motorway near the town of Urfa, near the  borders
of Syria and about 250 Km from the Iraqi borders. Probably coming from
Eastern Europe, the uranium was hidden in a secret compartment under one of
the seats of the taxi in which they were travelling.

The police specified that the Turkish Institute of Atomic Energy was trying
to determine whether this Uranium could be used for making a bomb. The two
people  questioned were released "for lack of evidence" according to the
provincial governor, Muzaffer Dilek, as quoted by the daily Hurriyet, which
, in its 30  September edition did not hesitate to suggest that the uranium
was intended for Saddam Hussein.